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Will they reach Much HQ by helicopter? Or maybe ride a zipline that stretches from the red carpet to the CN Tower?

Not this year. Marianas Trench says those two requests were already vetoed by management.

But if you really wanted to know how Marianas Trench is going to storm the MMVAs Sunday, June 17, as if they’d spill the secret.

Still, the Vancouver band’s Mike Ayley says he and bandmates Josh Ramsay, Matt Webb and Ian Casselman have been plotting an “EXTREMELY cool” appearance for months, long before Much shocked them with seven nods -- more than Drake, more than Bieber, more than any other artist.

Their top contender status is unprecedented for the band -- “I can’t really figure it out,” Ayley says -- and they’ll perform their single “Fallout” on the show. (The nominated song appears on last fall’s fairy-tale concept album, Ever After -- a toy box of Top 40 sounds ranging from their usual pop-punk to electro and R&B. A Canadian tour in support of the effort is on deck for “October-ish,” says Ayley.)

But Marianas Trench are MMVA vets. 2012 will mark their fifth trip to the show -- and fifth trip down the red carpet.

“Oh, we’re always thinking about that,” he says. “Usually February, March, we ask what are we going to do for the MMVAs this year?"

So far, Marinas Trench has fought ninjas, spoofed Gaga -- and even risked their own lives -- on live TV. They never go in with a Plan B, says Ayley, but they do follow these rules: “It just has to be a little bit unexpected,” he says. “It has to be fun for us, and it has to be something the people watching will be as entertained by as we are doing it.”

Have their past stunts merited something even more precious than an MMVA trophy? Ayley walks us through Marianas Trench’s red-carpet history:

2007 – Marianas Trench Make the MMVAs a Sandwich

“Well, there was more to that one than the sandwich,” says Ayley of the ginormous hoagie they fed to squealing fans gathered outside the show. The original plan? They were going arrive with the sandwich by bike.

Tandem bike.

Just one tandem bike -- with four dudes riding it.

“We didn’t realize what we were getting into,” says Ayley. “We started practicing [riding] it that day, and it’s REALLY HARD to ride a tandem bike with four people on it. So we were trying and trying and then all of a sudden -- maybe the fourth or fifth time -- the back wheel just when ‘WHOMP’ and warped into a semicircle from the weight -- because three of us were on the back wheel, essentially. So we just had to go in with the sandwich. But it was still fun, cause we still got to give away free food -- that some people might have got sick by because we kept it out for too long,” says Ayley.

“I don’t know that it actually taught us anything,” he says of the last-minute change-up. “Because every time that we’ve gone in and done stuff we’re like, ‘I don’t know if this is even going to work!’ … But it doesn’t matter, man. We just make the most of it and the crowd makes it for us, man. The RUSH when you’re coming onto the carpet is intense, it’s so loud. “

2008 - Sorry, Trenchers. The band didn’t play that year. “We were in the studio,” says Ayley.

“We were trying to recreate the 'Cross My Heart' video, but make it over the top. We got an amazing -- I think it was Western University’s -- marching band,” says Ayley. “We just called in a bunch of favours and they were the university that was willing to help us out the most.”

The cheerleaders really stole the show, as Ayley remembers. “They were FLYING into the air -- with concrete, with the road below them, so I was a little nervous. … It was just honouring the video, ‘cause it was nominated for four MMVAs. So we figured we’d come in that style.”

“I don’t know why we combined [those ideas] -- because it doesn’t really make sense -- but the idea of rolling in in a hot tub, but in a shirt and tie, soaking wet -- we thought that was hilarious, ‘cause it’s so stupid,” he says. “But people don’t know: that water was NOT hot. It was very cold. So we were freezing our asses off," says Ayley. “But it was fun. That’s probably my favourite one.”

“We were supposed to get the actual bra made by the same guy,” reveals Ayley, referring to the pyrotechnic lingerie Gaga debuted at the 2009 MMVAs. “But then he didn’t do it. I’m not sure why. … So we were like ‘Screw it, we’ll just make a joke version, like a tinfoil version. So a friend put it together and then, in rehearsal -- there’s only about 10 seconds of the song where you can get the bra on and get those sparklers lit -- it didn’t work. So MuchMusic was like ‘Ixnay the bra, don’t do it if it doesn’t work, we don’t want it on air.’”

Marianas Trench, however, wasn’t going to give up on a good gag. “We just did it anyway. And because it worked, nobody got in real trouble. But it coulda been interesting.”

“What we really wanted to do was get one giant one with all four of us in it,” says Ayley, though apparently that would have required a 16-foot tall model -- which is too big for the nation’s biggest block party. (In case you’re interested in buying one, Ayley says you can order them from a company in China.)

“We originally had four and we were all going to go in individual ones, but MuchMusic didn’t want that many on the carpet,” he says. So the guys split up, two per sphere, for a “ballsy” entrance.

“But the funny thing about the ball is there’s like a safety manual and it says ‘the amount of air inside the ball is approximately 20 minutes’ worth.’ And the problem is, when you zip it up and Velcro it, that zipper is on the outside of the ball -- so if you’re panicking, you can’t get out unless you bring a knife or something.”

None of them packed a knife.

“I looked to this guy, who’s my best friend in the world, I trust him with my life, and I said, ‘You keep a close eye on us. If you see me reach for my throat and make a choking gesture, I don’t care what’s going on with interviews or whatever, you come and get us out of this thing in a hurry,’” says Ayley.

“We were VERY light-headed when we got out,” he says. “It took about five minutes to sort of get back to normal, but I didn’t realize it when we were in there,” he says. “Still, it was all fun.”

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